One Single Second
by Tekomandor
Summary: A child conceived only a single second later; just how much difference could such a change make? The short answer? Fem!Naruto, a radically different Konoha Twelve and enough action, adventure, romance and occasional humour. Please note that said romance is *eventual* and will not occur between twelve year olds. The long version? You'll have to read it to find out.
1. Chapter 1

A child conceived only a single second later; just how much difference could such a minute change make?

It was a dreary night for the shinobi guarding the border fortress. The fortress itself was a bleak thing of rock and stone, made with many an earth jutsu. A cold desert breeze wafted into the fortress and it was a great comfort after the sheer heat of the day. The Iwa-Suna border had been quite for years even though Suna was a close ally of Konoha – they couldn't afford another war and knew better than to antagonise Iwa. Thus the border fortress was guarded only by a force of roughly twenty mediocre chunin under the command of a bitter old Jonin who had fallen out of political favour and been sent here as a punishment. There were a few genin couriers taking refuge for the night there as well but they would flee upon the first sign of trouble.

One of those genin couriers happened to have a message scroll from the Tsuchikage to a provincial noble in the Land of Two Rivers – a minor country of little note except for the fact that it was a crucial buffer state between Iwa and Konoha. That message scroll contained an offer. For a princely sum Iwa would be able to garrison shinobi on Konoha's borders. The ANBU ad led a daring raid into an Iwa intell outpost and intercepted one of two couriers – but one still remained.

That was where Team Seven came into the picture.

The only warning the Iwa shinobi got was a cloud of chakra smoke as thousands upon thousands of kunai flew straight for the fortress. The rain of supersonic steel cut a pair of chunin in half, such was the force of the blade and the wind chakra sealed into it's edge. Then the exploding tags attached to the kunai exploded. The explosion was titanic; the fortress reduced to rubble and shrapnel and more than half of it's compliment died instantly from the tremendous force and heat of the explosion.

Those that survived did so in a dome of scorched rock that had been erected by the Jonin commander of the fortress. The dome crumbled as the chakra sustaining it faded and it lost it's supernatural strength. Now the fortress was a pile of rubble – though what had once been the centre courtyard was relatively free of rubble and debris. That was where the survivors were and that was where Team Seven landed from atop the back of Sasuke's eagles.

They were a fearsome bunch – a jet black haired, nodachi wielding teenager in a black cloak, a man with silver hair and a facemask who somehow smiled out of his one visible eye, a pink haired, red clothed teenaged girl cracking her knuckles in some crazed sense of anticipation and a blond haired girl, aged no more than sixteen, dressed in an orange and black jumpsuit and a red and black haori. They were Team Seven, the most feared team of shinobi in the Elemental Nations and they were here for that scroll.

Faster than the untrained eye could see they vaulted forwards into combat once more.

_Four Years Earlier_

"Why'd you have to go and do that? Now I'll have to go right back and start it again?"

"I did that because it's time for us to leave Naruto. We're headed for Konoha – you do still want to be a ninja don't you?"

"YES! YES! YES! ALL IS FORGIVEN ERO-SENNIN! KONOHA HERE I COME!" Naruto concluded her bout of excited shouting at an extremely rapid pace and leaped up into the air in an extremely loud and annoying display of excitement. Jiraiya didn't even blink. He liked to imagine that his young apprentice weaponizing that voice of hers; because surely no enemy could stand against Naruto's particular brand of high energy high pitch sonic assaults.

It pleased him to imagine others suffering the same pain as him; but they really did have to get going and as such Jiraiya told his young apprentice to get packing and left to inform Sarutobi of his return via toad messenger. He might have spent the better part of the last decade traveling the world to distance himself from the crushing weights of his many failures but he still kept in touch with his Sensei. He owed the old man that much.

The brat would need a team of course; and he had to look into this 'Akatsuki' business that all his contacts were whispering about. Thus he couldn't lead his apprentice's - and in all but blood daughter's - team. But it would do the kid good to learn from someone other than him; maybe someone who actually knew some damn wind jutsu. He tried his best to teach Naruto what he knew, but she needed a teacher who actually knew more than one or two jutsus of her element. That or access to Konoha's greatest repository of jutsu; Kakashi. Yes that would do nicely; knowing that white haired sentimentalist he'd request Team Seven.

It was an odd thing, returning home after so long. He had hoped, in some small portion of his heart, that he'd return with his remaining team mate who had not joined the side of evil but he'd known that was extremely unlikely. It still pained him to know just how much he failed her; but he hoped he could clear some of his debt to the universe by protecting the girl that was proving so very similar to those his teammate had lost; and to those he'd failed to protect.

Sasuke Uchiha was not a boy of many words. He was not, in fact, likely to say anything that was not an answer to a question asked by a teacher, a dismissive insult or "hn". So it was a measure of his extreme surprise when he made a sound that could not, in any way, be described as 'hn' when he saw the new girl sitting in the back of the class. Not that she wasn't odd just from her looks - those whiskers were distinctive to be sure - but she was sitting upside down, on the ceiling. That was certainly new.

"Miss Uzumaki; would you _please_ descend from the ceiling and join the rest of the class in their seats?" Iruka seemed tired and not at all pleased by the introduction of a new student into his class. The girl was , going from her brazen display of skill, likely to be arrogant, disruptive and annoying. That final assessment solidified in Iruka's mid the second he heard her voice. That banshee wail would be the end of him.

Luckily for his peace of mind - and the dissipation of his growing headache - Uzumaki only made the most minimal of protests before gracefully dropping back down to join the rest of his students. It was only a few weeks until the Genin exam and somebody had thrust this new student onto him. She hadn't ever been educated in Konoha, at least officially. That was generally a bad sign; and he'd heard rumors, whispers of rumours really, about a secret program that trained children to be ruthless killing machines. A code name, a few odd genin popping up here and there - that was all he knew of ROOT. But while Naruto Uzumaki might be surprisingly skilled and devoid of any discernible past she seemed far too ... _bright_ to be apart of a ultra-secret cabal of black ops assassins. That childish cheer could , of course, all be an act but so could anything else about a ninja.

Naruto chose a seat in the back, where she promptly put her feet on the desk and leaned her chair against a wall. Iruka twitched slightly; but he'd long ago learned that it just wasn't worth the disruption to argue things like this.

"Now could you please turn to page three hundred and twelve of your textbooks..."

Naruto's eyes rolled backwards and she whispered the boy sitting next to her

"There anything more interesting to do here than listen to some teacher drone?"

The boy stammered, asjudusting his over large glasses and whispered back

"Well we've got ninjutsu next period..."

"What 'kinda ninjutsu do you do here?"

"Well we're supposed to be doing some more work on the bushin jutsu today"

Naruto's frowned and was about to reply until Iuruka turned towards them and said

"Anything you'd like to share with us, Naruto, Akaboshi?"

The two let out a near synchronised 'No sir!' and the lesson continued.

After the morning's theory work the students were lead out onto the large and well kept fields at the back of the academy. Naruto could see dozens of younger students sparring on some sort of dirt circle; but she looked back to Iruka as he began to separate the students into small groups to practice the clone jutsu. Naruto, or any other Jinchuriki for that matter, ever using such a delicate ninjutsu was extremely unlikely - but she could fake it by using a Kage Bushin.

She was partnered with two boys - one had a dog with him for some reason; and the other was the boy she'd talked to in class before. She managed to fake being very proficient with the bushin for some time. Then Kiba - the dog boy - punched her in the arm and dispelled her clone.

Well shit; now Iruka would know she wasn't in class.

"It's been great guys but Iruka knows I'm gone so I'll just be leav-" She didn't get to finish her sentence before Iruka burst into the clearing where the small group of students had been skipping class and went for her. Naruto shouted out

"RUN FOR IT" and leapt up into the trees, making dozens of Kage Bushin as she ran. Now there were dozens of blonde girls running in every direction, setting off smoke bombs and shouting various obscenities. The original meanwhile ran for it with her clones; and she laughed gleefully. She ran through the forest, ducking when a student who was significantly less skilled at escaping than her went flying after he'd tried to distract Iruka.

She made it out of the forest near the academy and onto the rooftops of Konoha. She could hear some faint noises of a scuffle behind her so she kept on running, then when she was ure she was alone she dropped down into an alley to blend into the crowds on the streets. Then she saw Iruka leaning against a doorframe with a satisfied smirk on his face and a bundle of other students who'd been skipping class tied up next to him.

"Shall we do that again, or are you going to come back to class?"

"I'm good. How'd you know which one was the real me"

"Smoke bombs don't work so well against sonar"

That just wasn't fair.


	2. Chapter 2

The key, after much effort, slid into the lock and opened with a click. The thin wooden door swung open and Naruto stepped inside her small apartment, her eyes looking over what was to be her new home. A small bedroom sat off the main room; and a tiny bathroom near it. Otherwise it was a small, simple place. An understocked kitchen and an dilapidated old couch completed the places look. Naruto cleared away some space in the center of the apartment and then reached into her jacket pocket for a medium sized scroll. She unfurled the storage scroll and then proceed to unseal all of her earthly possessions.

She didn't own all that much; she had moved around a lot as a child - the only place she might be able to call home was Mt. Myōboku - and as such she had few possessions. She hung her clothes away haphazardly and then came to her most prized possessions. A long white coat, emblazoned with red flame, and a tri-pronged kunai. She put _those_ away almost reverently and then secured the rest of her small arsenal - a few dozen kunai and shuriken. They were well made and well cared for - those things were expensive, and Naruto didn't have the money to just throw them away after one use.

The following weeks passed in a sort of daze for Naruto. She trained herself every morning and afternoon, but without Jiraya to teach her she focused on perfecting her technique. The academy was a joke - well it's practical section was a joke; but Naruto didn't really care about the theory. She was a person who learned best by doing, not by reading a book about something.

She arrived the day of the final exam bright eyed and energetic. Kiba shouted a greeting to her as she took her seat at the back of the class. As the other students filed in and took their seats she began to flick through her textbook in an attempt to look busy. Iruka arrived with Mizuki in tow and sat down at his battered desk, it's collection of battle scars and curiosities stretching back to the founding of the academy.

"Welcome class. Today we will be conducting the final examination you will undertake at this esteemed academy. The Genin test is one of strength, skill and mental ability - it will be the most challenging examination you will have undertaken to date and you will need every one of your varied skills to pass. With that said I'd like to wish you all good luck - I have truly enjoyed teaching you all, and I hope that you all pass and become successful ninjas."

Mizuki took over at that point; his words pointed and direct. There would be a written examination in the morning followed by the practical exam in the afternoon. The practical exam would consist of taijutsu sparring matches, accuracy tests, tests on the academy jutsu and then a chance to show off any other techniques a prospective genin may have for extra marks. Naruto wasn't too worried about the practical exam - she'd be able to, in her estimation, crush any of her classmates in a sparring match - and a chance to show off her jutsu? She'd been the student of one of Konoha's strongest ninja's for half a decade. The written exam? She'd probably fail miserably but what the hell, she didn't care about some stupid 'Rookie of the Year' title.

Not much anyway.

The written exam was long, painful and utterly boring. Some pink haired girl had finished only seconds before one of her new friends, Shikamaru Nara - and that had been only thirty minutes into a two hour long exam! The end of the written exam came and Naruto had answered all the questions, though she highly doubted the quality of those answers. And she might have guessed a few of the multiple choice questions at random.

But now all that boring writing and calculating was over and she would finally have a chance to show off.

They marched off to the weapons range at the back of the academy grounds, kids muttering amongst themselves about how easy the written test was. Even _Kiba_ had felt that he'd done well - and he was as dumb as a bag of rocks. Mizuki took one half of the thirty strong class for kunai throwing while Iruka took the other fifteen students to the shuriken range. Naruto was with Iruka and while she wasn't big on shuriken, she could pass the academy standards easily.

Iruka called the class up three at a time; and due to her last name Naruto was in the last group. That arrogant prick Sasuke Uchiha was with her and he was clutching his shuriken with a bloodthirsty eagerness. They walked up to the painted line and threw their shuriken at the man sized targets two dozen metres away. Both Naruto and Sasuke had managed to get all five of their shuriken into a lethal zone on their targets; but their classmate had only hit three out of five - enough to pass , but still below average. A similar story repeated itself with the kunai, but their other classmate managed to get four out of five kunai on target this time.

Then it came time for sparring. They were led to a large dirt ring; where they would spar against their classmates under the watchful eyes of their teachers. Naruto, as she was nearly the last person on the class roll, had to wait a fair while before her match came up. The same pink-haired girl that had aced the test absolutely destroyed Kiba, her punches sending the poor kid flying. That had been unexpected. Kiba was one of the better fighters amongst the academy students, at least from what she'd seen. Come to think of it that pink haired girl had never been in her half of the class for sparring. It seemed that there might be more to this class than she'd thought.

"Next match, Naruto Uzumaki vs Sasuke Uchiha. First one to be knocked out of the ring or surrenders lose, though either Mizuki or I can put an end to the fight if we deem it necessary. Now bow, and let the match begin!"

Ah. So she would be paired against the Uchiha prodigy. He seemed rather skilled, and he was unlikely to make many mistakes. It could be worse - she could have been paired against the _former_ Hyuuga. That would have been.. difficult.

So she stepped into the ring, her stance odd and confusing to the teachers and students alike. She bowed, and then launched a series of furious blows. She moved oddly, and her blows were unpredictable and flowed in some alien series of moves and maneuvers. Her fourth punch slipped through Sasuke's guard and smashed into his stomach but he retaliated with a powerful kick that forced her to jump away from the boy. Sasuke followed her into the air but she twisted around and delivered a kick of her own to the Uchiha and he went flying back towards the ground. He landed in a cloud of dust; but a blow like that wasn't going to deter Sasuke from fighting on.

He ran at her; launching into a leaping kick that took almost all of her considerable strength to block. He attacked again with more kicks while she dodged between the massive blows and smashed her elbow into his face, then she followed that blow with a powerful uppercut that sent Sasuke flying up into the air, only for him to land gracefully and land one of his powerful kicks into her side. She fell, her ribs feeling sore and maybe even a bit broken - but the Kyuubi would handle that.

It was time to end this. The instructors would only call a match when there was a clear victor - and they'd been pretty even so far. So Naruto drew upon her chakra; calling up a massive amount of chakra that still barely dented her titanic reserves of power and channeling it all into her fists - but she didn't use it. She kept it bound up in her fists ,waiting to be unleashed.

Naruto charged at Sasuke; using her first blow to distract him and weaken his guard then she punched him in the chest, releasing all her stored up chakra from her fists as a blast of focused wind chakra. For the briefest of moments her fists glowed bright blue and then the twin blasts of air sent Sasuke flying out of the ring, where he tumbled to a stop. She'd done, she'd won.

"And the victory goes to Naruto - see how she used a elemental taijutsu technique class? We covered those a few weeks ago; though I don't think anyone else here uses them..." Iruka spoke some more, but Naruto wasn't concerned with a simple analysis of her techniques. It was enough that he had declared her victor over Sasuke, the supposed 'Rookie of the Year'. She left the sparring arena with a smile on her face and a few choice words to Sasuke.

The ninjutsu tests for the academy jutsus were held in a small classroom, one student at a time. Iruka called her name out; and she walked into the classroom to find all but two of the chairs pushed against the wall, with Iruka and Mizuki sitting behind a single desk. They both had sheets of paper and pens out - ready to grade her.

"Could you demonstrate a successful bushin please?"

"Sure can - Kage Bushin!" She shouted out the name of the jutsu as she formed it's single hand seal and in a puff of smoke a dozen solid clones came into being. They took a bow as one and as they did Naruto got a great deal of enjoyment out of the looks on both teachers' faces. They'd just seen a n academy student use a jutsu that might require more chakra than they had. In total. Naruto thought her chances for Rookie of the Year might have just improved a whole lot.

"That's...amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a bushin more advanced than a mizu bushin done to pass the academy test. It's pointless, since you've already passed by about a million points, but could you show us the henge and substitution jutsus?"

"As long as I get extra credit for it; sure."

She promptly substituted herself and a chair; then transformed into Sasuke. She let out one small 'Hn', then transformed back to her own form. Her own comfortably _female_ form. You got extra marks for transforming into someone of a different gender and pulling it off well, but boy was it odd.

"Well I guess; since you're the last person on the list we may as well head to the extra credit section then. Please go with Mizuki, he'll be grading you for that part of the exam. But I do have to say - I've been very impressed with your performance so far; who did you train under before you came here?"

"Oh no one you'd have heard of. Just an old hermit with too much time on his hands."

AN: Yes, I updated the first chapter as well. The old one was bad.


End file.
